Requiem for a Nightmare
by Napitzlol
Summary: Semyon finally finds someone who makes him feel happy, but will his pride and concern about the opinion of others take him for everything he has? Copyright Soviet Games 2014 All lyrics and band names are property of their respective owners.
1. Chapter 1

Copyright Soviet Games 2014

I got home from work and changed into my normal clothes as my computer booted up. I spent my entire shift thinking of ideas for a new story and I was ready to start giving them shape; shape through text anyway. After I finished the first chapter, however, my mind started to wander. _What if life is just a fanfiction and everyone is just a story written by different deities? I may think I am writing about them, when in actuality, they are writing about me. _I began to wonder about the implications that would cause. _Why did I have to get the vain one? I care nothing about my appearance; yet here I am writing about my deity writing about me. He must have written a lot of stories because everywhere I look, people are religious about their image; I am glad I am different from them. Putting as much work as they do into their appearance seems like too much for a "someone _might _notice". _I sighed at my powerlessness to change this aspect of society and moved over to my other desk. I leaned the table lamp forward and picked up the key under it; it was for the bottom drawer of the desk. I pulled out my Vaporite and a small bag of the universal cure. I sprinkled some of it into the hose and put it into the bowl. I turned on the vaporizer but had a brief hang-up on what temperature to set it at. _Oh right, there is no actual set temperature, you just set it to the max temperature. When it's 496, prepare to shit bricks._ I amused myself as I set the temperature. I partially zoned out while I was waiting for the right temperature. A random neck-twitch brought me back to reality and I picked up the other end of the hose. _I have waited long enough, it's time to dream._ I thought as I took a long drag. I turned on some music and threw on a visualizer; if I didn't do it now, I might not be cognitive enough to later. By the time I was done, I had barely managed to turn the vaporizer off. As I turned back to the monitor, the visualizer formed a kaleidoscope inside of a wormhole. As far as I was currently concerned, nothing existed outside of the forming galaxy of lights in the visualizer; not even me, in the traditional sense. I was just an ethereal presence with no physical form, watching the first molecules of the universe form. I felt nothing; or maybe I felt so much of everything that it all just canceled itself out. This was my hideaway from the world. Nothing could reach me here.

I was woken up by my head being pushed against the back of a bus seat; the bus I was apparently on was slowing to a stop. When it finally stopped and I could move again, I leaned back from the seat back and looked around. _This is not my room. Holy shit, this is not my room. How the hell did I end up here? And who turned up the heater to match Satan's living room? _My mind raced as I kept looking around like a first-time tourist in a foreign country. _How is it summer here? _I ran outside and saw green fields of grass dotted with flowers, trees covered with leaves; everything was so alive. In front of me was a partially opened metal gate with a stone pioneer on either side of it. "Sovionok" was written in intricate letters over the gate; it looked like a summer camp. _Maybe I could ask them how to get back to my city from here; I will just pretend I was visiting a friend here. _I thought as I walked towards the gate but then stopped. _I don't know about this; just going in there and asking. This may look like a summer camp, but looks aren't always everything. There is an old prison somewhere in Siberia that looks like an elementary school but it's really the last stop before death._ I just got here and don't know how; wouldn't be wise to just walk into to a random gate that's not even open all the way.

"Hi! Did you just get here?" a female voice brought me out of my thoughts.

"Uh... yeah..." I managed to grunt out; I decided I was just going to pretend I came here on purpose so I dint scare her off.

"I'm Slavya. And you are..." Slavya asked.

"S-Semyon..." I mumbled.

"Nice to meet you, Semyon. Go to the camp leader, she will tell you everything you need to know!" She said with a pleasant smile and pointed at somewhere behind the gates. Before I could ask any questions, she had disappeared behind the gates. _Well, someone that friendly and pleasant can't be a convicted felon, so I guess I will go see this camp leader._ I walked through the gates and tried to find where she was talking about from where she was standing. Since none of the buildings I saw looked super important, I just picked a direction and started walking. It wasn't too long until I heard what sounded like guitar notes coming from somewhere. I followed the notes and soon found myself coming up to a stage. There was a girl with shoulder-length orange hair holding a guitar up on the stage; she looked like she was really into the notes. I heard a menacing growl from the speakers sing about leaving Earth as a white cloud while it was snowing. _Is that her voice? It must be, I can see her singing into the microphone._ I sat down in one of the front row seats and just watched her play.

"Where did you learn to play like that?" I asked her when she finished the song.

"I learned myself. Who are you? I haven't seen you before." She asked me; the sound of her normal voice temporarily froze time.

"Hello? You never see a girl with a guitar before?" She waved her hand.

"Oh. Sorry. I'm Semyon. Yeah, I am new here." I stuttered out; that was smooth. Rob Thomas smooth.

"I've just never heard anyone play like you except for people on the radio." I tried to distract from my earlier slip-up.

"Well if you know the basics, I can try to teach you some of the songs I know. I'm Alisa, by the way." Alisa offered.

"Meet me here after dinner; the dance is lame so you won't miss anything." she added.

She got off the stage and headed towards the cabins. _Well, somehow I don't think that was the camp leader, but it was still another friendly face._ I smiled as I kept searching for the leader's cabin. Finally I got to a cabin under siege by an unrelenting storm of lavender. _I have a feeling this is it._ I walked up to the door and was about to knock when the door opened.

"Oh hi! You must be the new pioneer. I'm Olga Demitrevna, the camp leader. You've probably already met my assistant, Slavya." a slightly-older looking woman in an almost excessively clean and sharp pioneer uniform greeted me. Well, "slightly older" is clearly relative here; she looked just barely older than the other two people I've seen so far, but not old enough to be a camp leader.

"I've got some business to attend to, but I've got something for you while I'm busy." she said as she pulled a piece of paper from her shirt pocket.

"Use this list to visit and familiarize yourself with the camp. Get signatures everywhere you visit." she instructed me as she handed me the piece of paper. By the time I had looked up from it, she was almost out of sight. I picked a direction and started walking; she could have at least gave me some directions. I soon ended up at an old building that looked exactly like the library I used to go to. When I walked inside, the door closing behind me seemed to sound like thunder. I froze for a few seconds and then started slowly moving towards the librarian's desk.

"Get on with it. You can walk faster, you know." an impatient voice suggested.

"I'm guessing you're here for a signature. I'm Zhenya." she introduced herself. I handed her the list and she quickly scribbled something on it.

"Uh... thank you..." I stuttered out; her strong sense of business and straightforwardness kind of caught me off guard. She handed me back the list, and I awkwardly walked out of the library. After a few minutes of walking and a few arbitrary turns, I found what I could swear was the House of Scientists. I walked inside and discovered myself in a technological wonderland. It wasn't that they had matter transporters or inter-dimensional wormhole generators, it was the sheer amount of everything that had gears or buttons or batteries everywhere the eye could look. It all looked like technology from when I was in elementary school, but to see it like this was still fascinating.

"You must be the new pioneer I've heard about. I'm Electronik and this is my brother Shurik. We run the Cybernetics club." a young man introduced himself and his brother to me.

"You've got quite a collection here." I said while still looking around, not really paying attention to them personally.

"Would you like to join our club? I'll sign that checklist for you if you do." Electronik gave me a smirk.

"Uh... I've already signed up for the music club. I don't think I would be able to do both." I lied; all of this technology was great, but something felt off. Something that told me not to sign up for anything just yet.

"Fair enough... I guess." Electronik sighed with disappointment as he took out a pen from his pocket. I handed him my list and he lazily scribbled something on it. I put the list in my pocket and headed out to try to find the next stop on my list. Just as I started to think I got lost, I saw a building come into view. As I got closer, I saw a sign on the door that said "Music club". _This has been easy enough so far; let's hope this continues._ I thought as I opened the door and walked in. I heard a soothing and comforting voice gently fill my ears, accompanied by an acoustic guitar. I must have been standing there for a while because I remember being pulled back to reality by the same voice but no longer singing.

"Hi! You must be new here. I'm Miku. Do you want to join the music club? It's only me for now, but maybe you could join to make it a duet?" Every word she said felt like a rainbow shooting across a tranquil field of grass. I suddenly felt terrible for lying about being in the music club. _I can't lie about joining the music club and then not join it. Especially not with someone like her as the founder; well, and only member._ I remembered the escape I used at the techno twins' building.

"Yeah... sure. I... I'm Semyon." I managed to string some words together; she was glowing with happiness like a nuclear reactor core. _I really hope to all that is holy, and unholy, that I am not around when she has a meltdown. _I thought as I took out my list. She took it and walked over to a nearby table; I was surprised the paper didn't catch on fire from the speed with which she signed it.

"Here you go! Come visit me soon!" she gave me a beaming smile.

"Thank you." I mumbled and walked away at a slightly increased pace; something bothered me about that girl. No one is _this_ happy about anything. She seems to be overjoyed about simply being here; don't get her started on the topic of visitors. At least the last place I had left was the easiest; the infirmary. _Since I am not blind, it should be physically impossible to miss a building with a giant red cross on it._ I assured myself as I walked out of the music club. Sure enough, the infirmary didn't take me long to find. I walked in and there was a woman sitting at a desk covered in paperwork. She was facing away from me and did not notice me at first.

"Uh... hi. I'm here for the checklist." I said quietly.

"You must be the new recruit. Close the door and have a seat... pioneer." She said without turning around. I sat on the hospital bed next to her and waited for her to finish her work.

"My name is Violetta but everyone calls me Viola." The nurse answered; she looked more like a receptionist in her current outfit but it's not the outfit that makes the person.

"My name is Semyon." I said and took out my list; she took it from my hand and put it on the table.

"Later. I need to check your health before you get into any camp activity." She said as she turned towards me. She gently put her hands on the back of my head and pulled me closer to her face. I felt her lips touch mine; her tongue sneaking between my lips and into my mouth a couple seconds later. _A fatal exception SV has occurred at 5361:S1364. _Everything in my mind except for these words abruptly vanished. I forgot where I was, what I was doing, everything. All I could feel was the nurse's tongue in my mouth. I don't know if we were like that for a couple of seconds or a couple of hours, but her voice finally brought me back to a semi-functioning state.

"Body temperature is normal. A pioneer should always be healthy." She said with the slightest trace of a smile. She scribbled something on the list and handed it back to me.

"Come back when you need treatment... pioneer." She said in a voice that almost sent me into another blue-screen. I got up and hobbled out of the infirmary. My legs were carrying me to some unknown destination while my mind was still back in the infirmary; it rapidly caught up to me when I tripped over the chair in front of the camp leader's house. I quickly got up and looked around to see if anyone saw me; all clear.

"There you are! Did you get the signatures?" the camp leader popped out of the door a few seconds later. I handed her the list; she looked at it for a minute and then put it in her pocket.

"You know someone tried to forge the signatures once? I was appalled. They knew nothing of the spirit of pioneers; such dishonesty was never seen before in the camp." she gave me a suspicious look, but I didn't take it personally; I actually went around and got all of the signatures. A trumpet fanfare went off and the camp leader came outside and closed the door.

"That's the dinner bell! Come on, I'm sure you're hungry since it took you this whole time to get the signatures." She informed me. We didn't walk really that far when she walked up to what kind of looked like a small fast food diner.

"This is the cantina. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are all served here." She said as she motioned me inside. Dinner was nothing special, some beef patties and a glass of milk, but it was better than my diet of two apples and whatever random candy bar I got my hands on that day. I was taking back my dishes when the camp leader was calling for my attention again.

"I almost forgot. You're bunking with Lena. You do need a place to sleep, no?" She said with a smile. I was walking out of the cantina when I almost walked into someone.

"Oh sorry, I didn't see you there." I said; I felt my cheeks getting warm really slowly.

"Its fine." a girl with purple hair in cute pigtails said quietly. I don't know what it was, but something instantly pulled me towards her in a metaphysical sense. Sometimes when you are driving for a long time through a dark forest, something will blink in the corner of your eye; you will turn to look but you see nothing. There was something special about this girl.

"I... I'm supposed to find Lena. I've been assigned to her cabin." I mumbled.

"I'm Lena." she mumbled and slightly blushed.

"Would you mind showing me the way?" I asked. She didn't say anything, just motioned me to follow her. We walked to her cabin in silence.

"Here it is." she said almost inaudibly.

"I'll see you later." she said quietly and walked in the general direction of the library; my best guess anyway. I opened the door and climbed up the couple stairs into the cabin. I laid down on the empty bed and realized almost instantly that I could not get back up. I'm so tired I could- I feel asleep before I could even finish the thought.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up to the sun beaming through the curtains in divine shafts of light. There was a small bag at my feet; a note on the bag said "a pioneer must always be clean and tidy." There was a razor, tooth brush, tooth powder, everything you needed for a bathroom essentials kit. It was on top of a very neatly folded pioneer uniform. I picked them both up and walked outside; right next to the house was a map of the camp. This would have been useful yesterday. I mentally grumbled as I looked at it and headed to the bathhouse. The water felt like it was freezing my skin on contact. I took a really fast shower; I couldn't hold out against the liquid remorseless winter for long. I put the uniform on headed back to the cabin to put up my winter clothes. As I walked out of the cabin, the cantina bell went off. I went to the cantina and was met at the door by the camp leader.

"Where were you at breakfast?" She asked me.

"It's not breakfast right now?" I asked; I had no idea what time it was.

"It's noon. Anyways get inside and eat. Busy day ahead." She said and motioned me inside. Everyone was in their own groups so I just at an empty table; seemed if I had gotten here just a few minutes later, there wouldn't be any empty tables. I finished my food and started to think what I could explore today. I might actually go visit Miku. I joined her club, so it would be mean to never show up again. Besides, she's big into music so I think I will enjoy her company. I just won't bring my Geiger counter. I smiled as I walked to the music club.

"Hi! I'm glad you came to visit me." Nuclear joy detected; Miku seemed to be waiting for me at the door.

"I've got a song I've been practicing but I can't get all of the parts right by myself." She told me as we walked in.

"What is it about?" I asked; if she avoids the question, she is trying to summon the devil through music.

"It's about a flower that blooms in the darkness. Why?" She asked without the usual overflowing joy in her voice.

"Just wondering. Thought I might know it." I half-lied. I might know it, but I also know what summoning a demon sounds like; doesn't necessarily mean I am interested in doing so. We must have lost track of time because it felt like just when I started hitting the right notes, the dinner bell rang.

"You were playing pretty good near the end! Keep it up!" She beamed; her happiness could power a small town indefinitely. I didn't even notice how Miku disappeared when we got to the cantina. I sat down next to Lena; since she was my roommate I had more reason to sit here than anywhere else.

"How was your day?" I started off with a general question.

"It was OK." She said quietly without looking up.

"Yours?" She asked after a brief silence. She didn't sound like she wanted to talk much, but was doing so out of politeness.

"Music stuff with Miku. Kind of fun, actually. Once you get used to get over-the-top radiance." I said; Lena's entire existence was shrouded in mystery. Body language, hell. She had absolutely no signals of any kind to read.

"I'll see you around." She said quietly and left the table. I hope I didn't say anything wrong. I worried briefly but then remembered today is the first day she's said more than 3 words; she wasn't exactly your public speaker type.

"Hey, you still coming to the stage to hear me play?" Alisa's voice came from behind me.

"Yeah. When is it?" I asked.

"Now. Walk with me." she replied. When we got to the stage, it looked like she had already set everything up; for two people.

"You set everything up for two people when you were not sure if I was coming?" I asked; I wouldn't have went out on a limb like this myself.

"I knew you would come. I just gave you one last chance to change your mind." Alisa said with a smirk. I played what I learned with Miku.

"Not entirely my style, but that's better than I thought you would be." Alisa said with a smile, but it didn't hide the tinge of arrogance in her voice.

"Well, I'm sorry you will never hear me on the radio." I said sarcastically.

"You're funny. You just need practice." Alisa smiled.

"And maybe a deal with the devil." She added with a laugh.

"I hope this isn't what you invited me for." I sighed.

"Oh, lighten up. I'm probably not going to be on the radio either." She rolled her eyes lightly pushed me.

"Well, the mood is kinda done. I'll see you tomorrow." She said and headed towards her cabin. I decided to explore the camp grounds. Probably was not the best idea, but I did not see myself going to sleep any time soon. After waking for a while, I was sure I was lost this time; all I could see was trees around me. I saw a clearing ahead and hoped it was the camp grounds. When I got to it though, it was not entirely what I expected. It was an ancient building battered by the elements and most likely a couple bombs. Most of the windows were broken, the paint was peeling; the whole building was a mess. For whatever reason I tried to open the front door. It was unlocked so I had another lapse in judgment and walked in. There was a room right next to the door that was open so I decided to look inside. I was looking at some dusty children's' book when I heard a door close. A burning fear exploded within me and I dove through the closed window. When I landed on the ground outside, I scrambled to my feet and ran like the entire world was after me. It felt like only a couple of seconds later that I made it to the town square. My hands were shaking and my heart was ready to smash my rib cage to bits. I saw the corner of the infirmary so I headed there. When I walked in, the nurse almost looked like she was expecting me.

"Out adventuring? It looks like it didn't go so well...pioneer." She asked me; I wasn't sure if it was rhetorical and she already knew or if she was genuinely curious. She took my hand to look at it; I noticed there was a cut on one of my fingers. Before I realized what was going on, I felt her tongue on my fingers. She had two of my fingers completely in her mouth; her tongue dancing around them.

"I swished with peroxide, my mouth is probably the cleanest thing you touched today." she said in the same tone as my first visit. She pulled a Band-Aid out of a desk drawer and put it on over the cut on my finger.

"I would avoid any more adventures for now... pioneer." She gave me a look that I wasn't sure whether to take as commanding or seductive.

"Uh... yeah. Sure thing. Thanks." I stuttered out and walked out of the infirmary. I made it to Lena's cabin; she was already asleep. I came in and collapsed on my bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

I woke only feeling partially rested, but I had a feeling that should not sleep in. I got up and went to the bathhouse; the water was at least warmer than the Arctic Circle. I finished my shower without racing against hypothermia and went back to the cabin to finish getting dressed. I was about to put on my shirt when the door opened and Lena walked in. Time seemed to freeze when our eyes met; I would have believed it did if Lena had not started blushing profusely. During the time we stood frozen and staring at each other, I saw some shades of red that I never even knew existed.

"S...Sorry..." Lena mumbled.

"Don't worry about it. If I was really concerned about privacy, I would change in the stalls in the bath house." I said casually. As I buttoned the last button on my shirt, the lunch bell went off. _How do I never make breakfast?_ I sighed as I walked to the cantina. Electronik met me almost at the door.

"I need your help with something important. So please come with me after lunch." he said urgently; he led me to a table with Shurik and motioned me to sit down. Since there was already a plate where I sat down, I didn't argue. We finished lunch in silence, and then headed out to the Cybernetics club.

"So what is the big, important thing you needed my help with?" I asked; the way that he had come up to me had me curious.

"Camp Security. Behold." Shurik said, and pulled back the covers on an oddly-shaped tower. It looked like an anatomically correct (at least the torso) female robot with cat ears. I really wanted to ask, but at the same time I really didn't want to know the answer.

"You are looking at our own security guard. We will no longer have to have random lineups to find out who did what. We just need some help with it because it's taken us a while so far and we are not done yet." Electronik announced.

"What if I said this does not look like the best idea?" I asked.

"Then you are against us. You don't want to be labeled as a terrorist, do you?" Electronik gave me a sly smirk. I sighed and sat down at the table. We spent what felt like several hours digging around in the cat-woman robots stomach, and then another hour in her head. I brought them the entire club house, one piece at a time. I started to feel like they were running out of stuff to send me to get when the dinner bell rang.

"Shurik will bring our food. We need to focus. If we try, we can have it finished tonight." he said while fiddling with a fuse he was putting into the cat-bot's head. Another couple hours later, we closed both the stomach and the head; and opened the arm.

"Are we putting guns on this thing? Call me a terrorist, but this is going too far. This is a tragedy waiting to happen." I protested.

"It's purely for looks and intimidation. It's got a couple blanks, which are also purely for intimidation. Don't worry about live rounds; we don't have any anyway." Shurik explained; but the way he said it made me uncomfortable. He left the clubhouse to get our food.

"Who is going to be controlling this... thing? Is it going to be controlling itself? How did you pick who is going to control it? I really think this is a bad idea." just looking at the robot cat thing made me uneasy; knowing that this was going to be walking around at night with a gun made my stomach qualify to join an Olympic hurdle jumping team.

"Oh come on. Shurik already said there was no live rounds in this thing. Just relax. You will be fine." Electronik assured me. Shurik shortly came back with food; after a short break, we continued working for what seemed like several hours. Electronik suddenly stopped and put down the voltage meter he was holding.

"We have to stop for the night. If the camp leader sees our light on this late, she will shut us down indefinitely." Electronik said urgently.

"Thank you for your help." Shurik said quietly.

"All I need now is some miscellaneous odds and ends for the finishing touch. The basement of the old camp building used to be the old Cybernetics clubhouse, so they are bound to have something for me." Shurik said with a gleam in his eye. I walked out of the Cybernetics club and left them to their business. On the way back to my cabin, I was met with Alisa.

"You've been gone the whole day. You are coming with me or I'm going to tell the whole camp that you've secretly groped me in my sleep." Alisa had a devilish look in her eyes.

"I will just move some stuff around in my room to make it look like someone was there. They will believe me because you're new here, and I have a knack for pawning things off on new people." She added with a devilish grin to match her smile. We walked to her cabin; the pirate flag in her window gave me an uneasy feeling.

"My roommate is not home. Come on." she said quietly and gestured me to follow her.

I sat down on the floor as she pulled something out from under her bed.

"Compliments of the Nurse: if she knew she was giving them." Alisa said with a grin as she held up a bottle of Stolichnaya.

"Do you know much trouble we could get in with that?" I asked her.

"Do you know how many fucks I don't give?" Alisa replied as she opened the bottle and poured two shot glasses. _Alright, screw it. I'm done fighting. Besides, when you drink alone, you drink with Truman._ I thought as I knocked back the first shot; a few seconds later, the shot knocked back.

"Where did you get this? I just felt like I got hit in the face with a planet." I was already starting to slur my words slightly.

"Like I said, compliments of the nurse." she knocked back her shot and almost lost her balance. We both had a couple more shots and then could not manage to get the bottle open again.

"Holy shit it's hot in here. I'm surprised you're not on the floor right now." Alisa slurred as she took off her shirt. The moonlight reflecting off of her skin made everything feel like a dream. She tried to stand up on her knees and ended up falling on her bed.

"Alisa?" I called; no answer.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked directly into her ear; no answer. I moved away from her to get up but I ended up tripping on something and rolling under the empty bed.


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up because of a perfectly aimed beam of sunlight hit right between my top and bottom eyelid. I lumbered to the bathhouse; a cold shower would at least wake me up. I got undressed at the door and walked to one of the stalls. I suddenly heard water running right in front of me. I looked up and froze; Alisa was completely naked and taking a shower. I must have not heard or seen her come in. I wanted to move but I could not will any muscle to move. _This is wrong. This looks so bad. I am dead if she turns around. Why can't I move?_ My mind started racing along with my heart. Alisa turned around but her eyes here closed; she was washing her hair. The sunlight reflecting off of her wet skin put me into an even deeper trance. I saw Alisa's eyes open and heard my mind whisper "it's all over now". For what I could swear was at least 2 hours, we just stood there, staring at each other. Her cheeks started turning red; followed by the rest of her face.

"What... the...hell... are you doing?" Alisa whispered slowly; her voice a chaotic vortex of emotions.

"I..." I squeaked; but didn't get any further. Suddenly, fear completely took over me, just like at the abandoned building in the forest. I whipped around and grabbed my clothes and ran for dear life back to the cabin. In one fluid motion, I flung open the door and leaped inside only to be frozen again. Lena had just gotten back from the shower and was getting dressed; her bra was still hanging from her time-stopped hand. My heart sounded like the kind of thunder that rattled windows and set off car alarms; my face could evaporate the polar icecaps on contact. I saw Lena's blush spread to her neck, and then continue in highly visible goose bumps the rest of the way. _Well, looks like this is where I'm going to spend the rest of eternity. Not a bad way to go, honestly. _My mind started to dissolve into complete nonsensical ravings. There was an electric shock in the back of my neck and I was able to move again. I started to turn around when I heard Lena's voice.

"You... you can stay." She mumbled softly. I found myself physically incapable of reaching for the door so I got dressed. When I looked up again, she was already dressed and no longer looked like she was going to spontaneously combust from blushing too hard. The lunch bell rang and we slowly started walking towards the cantina. When we got there, we were able to get a table to ourselves, miraculously. We ate mostly in silence until I decided to say something.

"I... I'm sorry. I should have knocked." I mumbled; I could not look at her without burning up.

"I... it's fine. I didn't knock either." she looked away to hide her blush. Suddenly we were joined by the rest of the cantina.

"Have either of you seen Shurik? He's missed the morning lineup, breakfast, and now lunch!" the camp leader sounded very concerned.

"He hasn't been back since he left early in the morning." Electronik said in a concerned voice.

"He probably went to the old building for robot parts." my big mouth blurted out.

"Ok then, you will go find him since you already know the area." the camp leader said triumphantly.

"Not no, but hell no. I'm not going down there without some kind of protection. Anything more than a crowbar or section of pipe." I solidly refused; you can only get scared half to death twice, and that night in that building was definitely number one.

"I think I might have something for you." Electronik said thoughtfully. I walked with him to the Cybernetics club. He went to the back of the room somewhere and pulled out a giant roll-out tool chest.

"This is all I have to offer. If you can figure it out, it's yours." Electronik said as he walked back to the cantina. I pulled open a drawer at random and saw a gun magazine surrounded by what I guessed was gun parts. _Now we are getting somewhere. Maybe this rescue mission won't be as bad since now I won't be in danger of needing the rescue. _I thought as I pulled the roller chest up to a desk and started laying out parts on the table. _What kind of summer camp keeps a disassembled weapon in a toolbox stashed God knows where? I would understand if the camp leader had a pistol or something, but this makes no sense. _As I slowly put more and more pieces together, I realized this was not what I expected. _Really? A sniper rifle? I'm worried about dangers popping out within arm's reach, and he gives me a sniper rifle. Then again, I guess it's better than nothing. I did say anything more than a crowbar; I never specified what range it had to be effective at._ The dinner bell rang as I slid the scope onto the attachment rail. _Maybe this isn't really a summer camp. Or there is some seriously fucked up shit going on. _I thought as I cleared the gun_. One in the chamber. That's comforting. _I attached the shoulder strap to the gun and hung it on my back. _I better hurry up before they send a search party for me too._ I thought as I walked back to the cantina. "So I asked for protection inside of a building, and you gave me a bolt-action sniper rifle." I said when I walked up to the camp leader.

"What did you expect, Kalashnikov with a vest made of banana clips?" She replied.

"I expected more than one bullet." I sighed. _If I get one bullet to clear the entire building, it better be enchanted or otherwise supernatural in some way. _

_"Oh here. I almost forgot." Electronik handed me a single sniper round. _

_"I'm not going to ask why you have this." I said as I pocketed the round._

"_And if you say this was for that robot of yours, I will save this round especially for you." I glared at him._

_"I'm not entirely sure myself. But it's yours now." He shrugged._

_"_If I don't make it back, beware of a crazy fucker with a sniper rifle." I said casually.

"But you only have 2 bullets; that's not much to 'beware' of." Alisa pointed out.

"Do you want to go with him?" the camp leader asked in a threatening tone. Alisa blushed and looked down.

"Well, we will all go look for him tomorrow." the camp leader announced.

"Well, I'm going right now. I didn't spend five hours assembling this thing for nothing." I said as I started walking in the direction of the old building. When I got to the forest that lead to the old building, I heard Alisa's voice behind me.

"Hey, I want to come with you; and you will probably need a flashlight." She held up what looked like an over-sized nightstick. It was entirely made of steel; not like the usual plastic ones you gave your kids when they went camping. It was officially night outside, and all that stood between us and the old building was a small path through a forest wall. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly; _round two with the house of horrors. _We walked through the forest wall and there it was; just as forbidding as last time. We slowly walked towards the building; it was so quiet you could hear your heart beat. When we got closer, I saw a shadowy figure come out of the front door of the building.

"Psst! Kill it!" I hissed at Alisa to turn of the flashlight. I heard the subtle click of the flashlight turning off; a few seconds later I heard a gunshot. I looked up and the shadowy figure was the cat-bot I helped build.

"Alisa! Where are you?" I whispered.

"On… the ground..." she gave a strained whisper. I turned around and there she was; with a big red stain on her shirt.

"Holy shit! We got to go back to camp. Now! Do you think you can make it?" I whispered as I quietly moved to her.

"The camp won't help us. Just... go... find Shurik..." Alisa forced out another whisper.

"No! There must be something I can do." I whispered; I felt tears well up in my eyes and blur my vision.

"Semyon..." I heard her last fading whisper.

"Semyon! Quit playing space cadet and let's go!" Alisa's voice rang loud and clear; the volume of it seemed to jar my vision.

"Semyon! What's your problem?" Alisa's voice picked up an annoyed tone.

"Sorry... I just had a really bad feeling about this whole excursion." I generalized; I didn't feel like revealing my vision right here and now; this was definitely not the time or the place.

"Just... follow my lead. I will explain later." I added. She grabbed on to my arm; for some reason I felt safer, even though I was the one holding the gun. We passed through the forest wall and the forbidding look of the old building made the surrounding area look just as creepy. I looked around from where we stood, but I didn't see anything.

"Sweep the front of the building with your flashlight." I whispered. I saw the flashlight turn on and slowly travel across the building until it stopped on something in the front door; it was the cat-bot from my vision.

"Kill that light!" I whispered loudly and shoved her away from me as I hit the deck myself. I heard two gunshots and then silence.

"Alisa? Are you alright?" I whispered.

"Would have been better if you hadn't pushed me, asshole" she hissed.

"Would you have rather been shot? Because that's exactly what happened in my vision." my big mouth getting me in trouble again.

"Oh... thank you..." Alisa's voice tone changed completely.

"Stay here. It can't see you without a light source; and if you're not moving, you don't exist to it." I whispered. I noticed a button on the scope of the rifle. _I can get it in my scope in the dark; then I will have only a couple seconds to make fine adjustments. _While sneaking into a different position, I felt myself accidentally hit the button; the area around me did not get brighter, however. I settled in and looked through my scope. I saw the cat-bot with considerably more ease; even if it was through a green filter. I heard a cough and saw the cat-bot start moving towards Alisa. _Not in this time-line, motherfucker._ I aimed at the center of the human-cat head and fired. The face of camp security was now all over the front lawn of the old building. _12 hours of my life wasted in 4 seconds. Oh, I'm going to have a _long_ talk with both of them when I get back. No live rounds, my ass. _I mentally grumbled as I quietly made my way over to Alisa.

"I thought you said it couldn't see me." Alisa tried to sound mad but I could sense the fear in her voice.

"I forgot that thing had sonar hearing too. It's not going to be bothering us anymore, though." I assured her. We walked up to the body that seemed more or less untouched.

"I can recover the video and sound it recorded and show it to Electronik. We will see who he thinks is the real threat to the camp then." I explained why we were approaching our failed assassin's body. I tried to open the hatch by hand but it wouldn't budge.

"Open, damn you!" I grumbled and hit it with the butt of the rifle. The shoulder broke like cheap plastic, exposing the joint mechanism of the arm. I tore off the back plate and took out the video recorder cassette.

"This will most likely get me out of ever helping him again." I smiled as I put it in my pocket. We walked through the door of the house and Alisa's flashlight beam fell on a trap door in the corner.

"I'll get the door open. Watch my back." I said as I handed her the rifle. The door gave some resistance at first but opened up are a few tries. I took the flashlight out of Alisa's belt, causing her to jolt slightly.

"It's just me." I assured her. I shined it down the hatch opening but didn't see anything except for a dirt and gravel floor. I slowly climbed down through the hatch.

"Hand me the rifle, and then climb down." I said quietly. She lowered the rifle into the hatch by the shoulder strap and then climbed down herself.

"You can't tell from the way it opened, but someone has used it recently." I said as I picked up the rifle and started looking around the tunnel with the scope.

"I see a hole down at the end. Looks like the only way to go. Move quietly and stay close." I whispered as I started walking towards the hole.

"Turn that light off for now. The scope shows me everything I need to see." I added; I did not want a repeat of the cat-bot. The hole revealed what looked like a mine shaft of some sort. I climbed down and looked around.

"It's safe. You can climb down." I whispered as I motioned her to follow me. She climbed down and we continued walking.

"How far are you planning to go?" She asked.

"Far enough to say, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he's not here." I don't know why I gave her some "Public Relations bullshit" answer, but it seemed to answer her question without raising more or causing panic so I didn't think much of it. We walked a bit further and then I froze when I turned the corner; the sudden stop caused Alisa to bump into me.

"Warn me next time!" She whispered.

"There is someone else here." I said in a barely audible whisper. I saw a hunched over figure sitting at a fork in the tunnel, facing away from us; they were wearing a pioneer uniform.

"So, you survived the trap I set out in case you followed me." the figure said without turning around; it sounded like Shurik's voice, but there was a trace of dementia in it.

"What the hell are you talking about? You disappeared for an entire day so we got worried about you. We started looking for you because we thought something might have happened to you." I explained why we were "following" him.

"Something did happen to me. I found out everything. You, Alisa, and the camp leader are all working together to hold back the camp from the future. All these rules and regulations that specifically exist to control the Cybernetics club." Shurik said in the same tone as before.

"I hardly consider three laws to be too much." I said with a smirk.

"It's good of you to come down here. Once I get back to the camp, I can tell my brother we have a two on one advantage." Shurik said with a chuckle.

"You can try. But I will warn you now, you've brought a pipe to a gunfight." I said as I sighted in on the pipe in his hand.

"You've squandered all your precious time, this is the end of the line!" Shurik said in a raised voice and sprang up towards us; I pulled the trigger before he finished the last word. The shot thundered through the hall with a deafening reverberation.

"Threat is still active! Coming in hot!" I shouted in words that were not my own; Shurik pushed me out of the way and went straight for Alisa. I dropped the rifle and lost my balance from surprise; I fell over onto the flashlight in my belt and was temporarily stunned. When I recovered, I pulled the flashlight out from under me and turned it on; I had to act fast because I saw him on top of Alisa with his hands around her throat. I threw the flashlight like a tomahawk and rolled over to get up. I heard a dull thud followed by a yelp of fear and surprise. The impact of the flashlight against Shurik's head broke the bulb and we were in darkness again.

"Hey. Are you still with me?" I whispered; no answer.

"If you can hear me, at least make some kind of noise." I said in just below a normal voice; still no answer. I felt around for the rifle on the ground; the scope will at least let me see better. After a few seconds of my hands blindly dancing around, I found it. I looked through the scope and saw Shurik's body rising barely a centimeter and then falling. I pulled him off of her and called again; moving Shurik's body felt like moving a sack of potatoes.

"Swear to God, if he killed you, I'm gonna go postal." I said in a normal voice; normal volume anyway.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" Alisa's hoarse whisper graced my ears.

"Oh, thank Lenin you're alive. You didn't answer until now so I thought the worst." I breathed a sigh of relief.

"We are leaving right the hell now." I said as I helped her get up. We walked back to the hole in the floor we came through and climbed back up. The trip to the trap door seemed longer than the trip from it. I climbed up and held the door open while Alisa climbed up. We made a bee line for the door and took off running as soon as we were outside. We only stopped running when we got to the camp square.

"Well, I'm probably not sleeping tonight. You want to go to the beach?" Alisa asked me; the words were such a surprise to me that my brain did not process them at first. All I could manage was a confused grunt.

"I'm going to the beach for a swim. Are you coming with me?" Alisa repeated.

"Uh... yeah... sure..." I mumbled; her moods seem to change on a dime. _We were under siege by a haywire cat-bot and then she almost got strangled by a berserk pioneer, and 5 minutes later she wants to go swimming._ I decided not to say anything and followed her. When we got to the beach, I realized it was too much effort to sit upright so I laid back; the sand almost softer than I thought it would. Right when I started getting that numbing pre-sleep feeling, I heard Alisa's voice.

"Hey, come on! You said you would come with me, I didn't mean come with me and sit on the beach." she motioned me to join her.

"I don't have my swimming trunks." I replied lazily.

"You don't need it, no one else is here. Besides, I'm not going to see anything new." she said the second half in a playful tone. I got undressed and walked into the water; it was cold, but it was a pleasant cold. When I swam to where Alisa was, she wasn't there. I started to turn around when I felt hot flesh on my back.

"So, was coming out here worth it?" She asked me in an almost seductive tone; just this time I was actually kind of turned on instead of frightened. As if to make a point, the top of her swim suit slowly drifted by me in the water. My face felt like it suddenly caught fire and my heart started playing the bass-line from a rave club. Alisa hugged me a little tighter and I felt her heart beat. Occasionally it felt like our hearts made fragments of music; only a couple seconds at a time, but it was definitely noticeable. I don't know how long we stayed like this, because time was nonexistent until she finally swam ashore.

"Hey, don't fall asleep out there!" Alisa's voice brought me out of my trance. I also swam to the shore and got dressed. We walked to our cabins in content silence. When I broke the plane of the door to Lena's cabin, it was like I had run out of cord length and unplugged myself by inertia.


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up in pain. My whole body ached, and I felt like I got no rest from sleeping. I got off the floor and went to the bathhouse. I barely managed to get undressed and lumbered into one of the showers. I heard the faint rustling of a shower curtain, but I was not awake enough to care. The water turned on before I even turned around; _when did we get motion-sensing shower heads?_ I thought as I reached for the soap.

"Hey! Wake up!" I heard Alisa's voice as she slapped my hand away from the soap.

"What are you doing here?" I mumbled.

"When I said 'wake up', I meant it in both senses of the word." Alisa explained; or was trying to anyway.

"I must be dead, because your words remain cryptic." I said, slightly more awake.

"I like you. A lot. But obviously you haven't noticed. I know I haven't always shown it in the best way, or at all, but I really do; even if you did get me drunk to have sex with you." She said the second part in her trademark blackmailing voice.

"Nothing happened. You got hot and took your shirt off. A few minutes later you passed out. Good luck trying to pawn this off on me because you're not allowed to have alcohol in the first place." I preemptively countered her blackmail attempt; just in case it actually was one.

"And I never touched the bottle so you can't say that they can't prove ownership." I said when Alisa started to say something.

"Jeez, what a killjoy. I wasn't even trying to blackmail you. I was going to say I wouldn't have mind even if you did try something." She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"I wouldn't even mind if you tried anything right now." she said in a more deliberate tone than usual. I was about to answer, when the lunch bell rang.

"We can always get lunch later." I answered and put on her signature devilish grin.

We must have looked all kinds of suspicious; two people walking out of the shower with a smile that could outshine even Miku. On a good day.

"I have a cassette to drop off for Electronik. Pried from that abomination of a robot he had me help him build. Also, I'm sure he's curious about his brother. No one even knows if we returned from looking for him yet." I told Alisa when we got to the camp square. I was about to leave when something caught my eye; her neck looked like it was slightly darker. I got took a closer look and saw that they were hand-shaped bruises.

"That's it, I'm going to kill him." I said in a completely calm voice.

"Eep! Don't tell me! That's accessory! I know nothing!" Alisa squeaked and ran off towards the cabins before I could say anything. I headed off to the Cybernetics club; I had some words to share with the founder. When I got to the building, the door was already open, as if someone was waiting for me. I walked in and was instantly greeted by Electronik.

"Hey! You're alive! We were ten minutes from going to the old building to search for you. No one saw you since you and Alisa left yesterday after dinner." Electronik said sounded very cheerful.

"How is Alisa? Did you find Shurik?" he added.

"You are lucky I only had two rounds. I almost kept my promise from yesterday." I said in a low growl.

"Alisa is fine, no thanks to your blatant waste of plastic and transistors; and especially your psychotic brother." I answered as calmly as I could without grabbing him by the collar and throwing him over the table.

"I have a cassette for you." I pulled out the cassette from my pocket; Electronik gave me a puzzled look. We walked over to a rolling cart with a TV and a VCR on it; the VCR was made with video camera media in mind. I turned the TV and VCR on and put in the tape. There was darkness at first, but then I saw the door of the old building open. The camera moved a bit closer to the forest then stopped. A light appeared in the distance; the camera zoomed in on the light.

"Kill that light!" my voice came through the TV speakers. The light disappeared and barely a couple seconds later, there were two very faint muzzle flashes on the bottom of the screen; looked more like screen distortion than muzzle flashes but they were too well-timed with the gunshots to be anything else.

"You still went forward after being shot?" Electronik asked in shock.

"Shot at. I pushed Alisa out of the way and hit the deck myself." I corrected him. Silence again. A few minutes later I heard a very faint cough and the camera started moving again. There was a clap of thunder that shook the camera and knocked it over. Silence again. Another couple minutes later, cautious footsteps came up to the camera.

"I can recover the video and sound it recorded and show it to Electronik. We will see who he thinks is the real threat to the camp then." my voice grumbled through the speakers and Electronik looked at the ground with a shameful look on his face. The camera got flipped on its face and was now staring at the ground; some light scuffling noises followed soon after.

"Open, damn you!" crackled through the TV speakers. A loud thump followed by the sound of snapping plastic came next. There was some barely audible grumbling and then TV screen turned solid blue after a small burst of static. A few seconds later, the word "Stop" appeared in the corner of the TV.

"This raises a lot of questions." I turned to Electronik.

"Where did you get the ammunition for the robot? I thought you said there were no live rounds. Also, where did you get the sniper cartridge you gave me? From your pocket, no less. Like you were saving it for a rainy day." I glared at him as I began the grilling. I knew this was a perfect opportunity for a Monty Python joke, but I was not in a joking mood.

"Speaking of which, why is there a disassembled sniper rifle with night vision and a round in the chamber just sitting in the back of the Cybernetics club?"

"We used to have a shooting range here at the camp, but we got rid of it after a student went postal and killed ten people, including the ..." Electronik's voice seemed to fade out for a moment as I momentarily felt the weight of a Kalashnikov and in my hands and a belt of clips across my chest.

"... Did say there were no live rounds. I'm not entirely sure where he got them from. Or why. I used to be the marksmanship instructor. So they gave me the gun to keep for exigent circumstances. They gave me two bullets so I would not feel all of the pressure of potential failure on one shot. I kept the bullet in my pocket so I would never forget it should the need arise. The gun was kept disassembled because I was the only one who knew how to put it together. That is, until you showed up." Electronik had a hopeful look in his eyes; hopeful that I was done with my questions.

"Where is Shurik?" he asked.

"He was in the basement of the old building. When we found him, he went on about how we survived the trap he laid for us in case we followed him and how Alisa and I were working together with the camp leader to 'hold back the future'. His words, not mine. The trap, of course, was the robot with live rounds. " I told him about my adventure.

"Where is he now? He still hasn't come back." Electronik asked as though what I just told him sounded completely normal.

"I haven't seen him since he tried to strangle Alisa and I hit him with a flashlight." I used his casual tone of voice to give him a taste of his own medicine.

"You hit him with a flashlight? I only heard one shot on the video. You had two rounds with you. Why didn't you use it?" Electronik sounded offended.

"Пашол ты в жопу. I'm not going to shoot an unarmed person. He was holding a pipe when he charged at us so I shot the pipe out of his hand. I knew there was a lot less of a chance of him killing her with just his hands than with a pipe. He pushed me out of the way to get to Alisa. I lost my balance and fell over. I saw his hands around her throat and so I threw the flashlight at him. It hit him. Alisa and I ran like hell afterward. She has bruises on her neck. If I had three bullets, I would have used that last one on him. He better stay gone." I told him the rest of my adventure.

"It looks like you're building another robot." I gestured towards the table. Electronik cleared the table by sweeping everything to the floor with one swipe of his arm.

"Nope, just some really badly placed miscellaneous junk and assorted spare parts." He said with a nervous grin.

"If I do see another robot aspiring to be 'the face of camp security', it will share the fate of the last one. Then, I will come after _you._" I warned him. I walked out of the Cybernetics club and decided to go to the music club. _Must be open house today, everywhere I go I see open doors._ I thought as I walked up to the open door of the music club.

"Semyon! Did you get lost or did you actually come to visit me?" Miku greeted me with the usual radiance.

"I actually came to visit you. I've recently been plagued by really bad thoughts. You're always brimming with happiness and optimism, so I thought you would be able to help me." I explained the reason for my visit.

"Oh no. Don't tell me that... You never found him?" Miku asked with concern.

"I did, but because I found him, I almost didn't make it back." I sighed.

"I don't really want to talk about it. I need happy thoughts." I added.

"I have just the thing!" Miku chirped and walked over to the acoustic guitar leaned against the piano. She started playing a calming, pleasant tune; I felt my mind slowly calming down. My thoughts were moving slower and losing focus.

"In the coldness of morning, you brought warmth to their lives." I heard her voice briefly bring be back to reality before Alisa's smiling face faded in over everything else in my mind. The longer Miku played, the deeper into the trance I went. Reality eventually melted away completely and I lost consciousness.

I woke up in a burst of physical tourettes to the sound of a door opening.

"Oh hi! You're still here." Miku's voice came from behind me.

"I think I'm going to go lay down for a bit. I feel really tired." I mumbled and got up off the floor; I seemed to have gained a proficiency in falling asleep on the floor.

I finally made it to my bed when I noticed a piece of paper on the pillow.

"I know we haven't talked at all, and I haven't really done anything to show it, but I really like you. I wrote a note instead of telling you because an impersonal rejection would be easier to forget about. But I really hope you feel the same way.

Lena."

_Alisa _and _Lena like me? And they told me on the same day? How do I even- _the dinner bell interrupted my thoughts. I grumbled and headed to the cantina. After I got my food, I went to sit with Lena. She said nothing, but blushed when I sat down.

"I heard rumors that you and Alisa are..." Lena trailed off; my mind was on fire. The beach and the shower this morning flashed through my mind. What do I tell her? Do I tell her anything?

"No. We've talked and played the guitar together, but that's all that happened." Belial himself would have blushed at how blatantly I just lied.

"I read your note." I said quickly; I had to change the subject before the ground opened up and swallowed me whole right in front of the whole cantina. Lena's blush deepened.

"It was the best thing I've gotten from anyone. I really don't know what else to say." I was being entirely truthful this time; well, almost entirely. This was the first note I've ever gotten from anyone, but there was no doubt in my mind that this was going to be the best note I ever got or will get.

"Before we get started on our hike, I would like to say a few words about a fellow pioneer that went missing. Shurik, you will be missed." The camp leader paused at the end as if she was going to continue.

"Everyone pick a partner to hike with! Safety in numbers!" She said in a cheerful tone. In a few minutes, the cantina was empty with the exception of Slavya; but even she was close to the door.

"Semyon, are you not coming to the hike? You can walk with me if you want." She called from the door.

"Uh, yeah. Just got lost in thought." I mumbled and started to walk to the door myself.

"When the camp leader said 'a few words, I didn't know she meant literally." I commented on the almost complete lack of a memorial service.

"She just tries to keep it short because she needs to be a rock for everyone else." Slavya explained; I felt like there was more to the answer than she was telling me, but I decided not to pry.

"He... Attacked Alisa. I panicked and threw my flashlight at him. He was unconscious when I moved him off of her. He... He might never come back." I don't know why I decided to confess my adventure to Slavya; it just came out. I was beginning to think I knew who the student was that got the gun range shut down. The only thing I felt when I first saw Alisa's bruises was primal rage. The meeting with Electronik would not have ended well if I had not shot the pipe out of Shurik's hand.

"I heard about what happened. If he really doesn't come back, I won't think any less of you. You did what you had to. You tried to protect the life of your fellow pioneer. Regrettably, it meant possibly taking a life of another pioneer. There is nothing you could have done." Slavya sounded like she was talking to a loved one on death row.

"I could have done something differently. I could have went alone. I could have gotten away from him under the cover of darkness." I mumbled; I recklessly endangered Alisa's life for no reason. I was fully capable of finding him myself.

"Don't beat yourself up about it. All's well that ends well." She said cheerfully and gave me a heart-melting kiss. My mind was suddenly clear of all thoughts; like someone just unplugged my mind and plugged it back in.

"Let's set up in that clearing." The camp leader pointed to some logs in a camp fire formation. As we sat down at the campfire, everyone appeared to be in their own groups talking about their things. I had no group, so I just watched the fire for a bit. When I looked up, I picked up Alisa and Lena intensely arguing about something. _Ha. Lena. Intensely. "_Lena" and "intensely" being in the same sentence amused me for reasons unknown. I decided to get closer to them, but not so much that they notice.

"I'm not going to listen to anymore! I've heard enough!" Lena snapped.

"Fine then! You never listened in the first place!" Alisa grumbled. Just then I noticed myself moving as a twig snapped with the force of 50 redwoods scared me stiff.

"You! Are you _eavesdropping_?" Alisa fumed.

"Tell him everything you just said!" Lena challenged.

"Did you know he was peeping on me today? He saw _everything_!" Alisa said with an acidic grin.

"Is... Is it true?" Lena asked while blushing furiously; tears started to well up in her eyes.

"I... it was... an accident! I didn't see anything!" I stuttered out; I don't know why I was lying to save an image I didn't know I had.

"Oh yeah! Well, I can always repeat it!" Alisa shouted and ripped open her shirt. Instead of the euphoria I felt the first time, I felt like I had seen the face of Death.

"I know everything now!" Lena cried and ran off into the forest.

"She doesn't need to choose who to trust now. She saw everything for herself." Alisa said in a sarcastically triumphant tone. She started to walk away but I grabbed her wrist and walked closer to her.

"That was really unnecessary! You will go apologize!" I demanded. Alisa strangely looked shy and confused. _Did I just give Alisa an order? And she actually listened?_ I was certain I was going insane; how did I even think to interpret this reaction like this?

"O-... ok..." Alisa said quietly. _Now I'm hearing things. Welp, piss on the dogs, and call in the fire; I've officially lost it._ I just stood there for a couple of seconds; as if welcoming myself to my new state of mind or lack thereof.

"I said I will apologize. You can let go now." She said the second part with a trace of irritation.

"So where did she go?" I asked.

"Did you not see? Too busy looking at my boobs?" Alisa asked with a smirk.

"Just tell me. I don't want to spend all night looking for her in places she's not." I grumbled.

"Probably the island; there is almost never anyone there." Alisa said plainly. We started to walk to the docks; I walked behind her in case she decided to try anything sneaky.

When we got to the docks, I saw that one boat was missing. I decided not to question why Alisa was helping me; sometimes it is best to "don't ask, don't tell" in this world, as I found out over my time here. It was a pain to row to the island, but we got there. We walked a little into the forest and found Lena sitting down next to a tree, staring at something in the distance.

"Lena, I-" I began but was interrupted by Lena.

"You! You still came and found me after what just happened? And you dared to bring _her?_ Do you just want to kill my heart completely?" Lena cried and sprang up with a vicious right cross; I just barely had time to block it from hitting Alisa. It felt like a major-league pitcher just threw a brick at my shoulder; my whole arm and that half of my body went numb.

"Never look for me again! Or next time I will aim better and it will be meant for you, personally." Lena threatened and stormed off into the woods and probably back to camp. After the sound of Lena's movement got too far from us to hear it, Alisa gave a sigh.

"Well, that went well. Can I go now? Or were you hoping I would show off like at the campfire again for catching Lena's punch?" Alisa had the familiar arrogance in her voice again.

"That's not what I did that for. I just didn't want you to get hurt." I said; seeing that punch flying towards Alisa gave me way too many horrible visions. Alisa grumbled something and started walking towards the boat to get to camp. The row back was silent; we went back to our separate cabins.

I climbed into my bed and rolled over. I didn't notice that my eyes had closed; by the time I noticed, I had already started to slip off into another dreamland.


	5. Chapter 5

I woke up because I felt like I was turning into an icicle. I got up to look out the window and felt a chill in the center of my heart: it was winter outside. _It was summer the last 6 days here, and now it's suddenly winter just like it went from winter to summer when I got here!_ This had to mean that something was catastrophically wrong. No one here has any winter clothes; they would all freeze within a week at the most. I suddenly got a burning impulse to go to Alisa's cabin. When I got there, for whatever reason, I didn't even bother to knock before I went inside; I found it a bit strange that it was unlocked, but dismissed it. Alisa wasn't inside, but her guitar was next to the bed; looked like she played it recently. As I got closer, I noticed that a string was missing. I felt like my brain was pierced by a burning needle; I know she would not just leave a guitar like this and not fix it. A piece of paper on an otherwise entirely clean desk caught my eye. This created another needle to set fire to my mind. I walked over to it because I knew reading it was inevitable.

"Dear Semyon,

I liked you a lot. I may not have always shown it, or shown it the wrong way, but I liked you a lot. But I saw that the feeling isn't mutual. In fact, you will even lie about what happened between you and someone else when that someone else is looking right at you. You almost act like you're embarrassed to even be accused of being with me. I do appreciate you blocking Lena's punch even though I didn't show it at the time. I was only a shoulder to cry on. You were trying to lie to save someone else's opinion of you. Since I am just that bad to be seen with, I will make things really easy for you.

Alisa"

What was once a needle was now a railroad spike. An eerie yet soothing (well, soothing in general, but not for me in this case) guitar rhythm came over the intercom. It was soon joined by another guitar and some subtle drums. The vocalist gave a long, heavy sigh and the rest of the band started playing, as if on cue. I ran out of the cabin and looked around; nothing but my footsteps that were already half-covered by falling snow in the middle of empty, snow-covered cabins. I don't know why, but I decided to go to the electronics club; maybe the prodigal sons of Soviet robotics could help me. _Help me with what? I am beyond any kind of help, short of a divine miracle. _I mentally grumbled as I walked through the frozen camp. The door to the main building was already open; I wasn't sure if this was a good or bad sign. I took only two steps inside before I heard Alisa's voice.

"Goodbye, Semyon. I hope I won't embarrass you anymore." She said through sobs. I turned my head to where her voice came from and saw her pull a switch on the wall; everything past that happened in slow motion. I saw electricity creeping along a thin wire to what looked like a Tesla coil; I didn't need a crime lab to know where the guitar string went. _What were the techno twins doing with a Tesla coil? _I asked myself as I watched the electricity fill up the coil. The top of the coil filled up and glowed angrily before the electricity formed into a lightning bolt and leaped towards Alisa.

"No! What-" I shouted as I started to run towards her; I shouldn't have even bothered to move because by the time I took the first step, the lightning already hit her and she was starting her collapse onto the ground. The lightning arced off of her and headed for me like as if it was predetermined that I was going to be standing right here at this point in time. When the bolt hit me, it felt like accidentally touching one of the prongs when you're plugging something into an outlet; except this time the intensity of it was multiplied by some ungodly number. I felt my all of my muscles fail me at the same time and I collapsed on the ground. With the door open and no one to turn off Zeus's tower of judgment, my mind considered all of the possible ways to die.

"Semyon!" I heard what sounded like Lena's voice; I prayed to all available deities that it wasn't. A few seconds later, I heard footsteps approaching.

"Semyon! Are you alive?" Lena's voice asked again; there was no mistaking it this time. I wanted to scream, I wanted to tell her to get away from here as fast as she could; nothing escaped my mouth save for a barely audible wheeze. I saw Lena's hand reaching for my face in excruciating slow motion. I felt her touch me but it offered no warmth. Her body gave an involuntary jolt of movement and she collapsed on top of me. She did not have any winter clothes, so being out here meant certain death. This was the final nail in the proverbial coffin; being forced to watch the last person you cared about slowly freeze to death on top of you. This must be how you die: You are transported to a completely new and alien world, given six days to do whatever, and then everything you hold dear is violently ripped from you and you are left to spiral into despair. Death shows up near the end to act like the hero; the knight in shining armor. What He doesn't tell you is that you are already dead and completely in His hands now.

"I'm... sorry... Semyon..." Lena mumbled softly. I'm not sure how long we were just lying on the ground in silence before I finally said something.

"No... I should be... the one apologizing..." I forced out. After another unknown length of time in silence, I looked up and saw that her arm was almost entirely covered in snow; my last words had fallen on dead ears. The last thing I remember was a loud explosion followed by the building collapsing on top of me.

I woke up with a shout in cold sweat. Was it all a dream? Did some supernatural power take me back to my own world after I had failed to complete whatever challenge it had thrown me into? I was sitting on my bed, staring in the direction of my computer screen, trying to process everything when it randomly turned on. I saw a message pop up on the screen.

"I hope you are happy." was all the message said. This felt like Lena had punched my soul directly. It was all real. The message was too well-timed to be a coincidence. But who was it? I watched both possible senders die. Maybe they are alive in this world? A glimmer of hope inspired me to reply to the message.

"I cannot express how happy I am that you're alive!" I typed.

"This is Lena's father. You better hope I don't see you. Anywhere. So help me God, I will kill you even if it's in the middle of a crowd in broad daylight." was the reply and then the name went gray. The glimmer of hope was mercilessly extinguished by impenetrable darkness. I moved my mouse to close the chat window and my hand bumped against a bottle of painkillers I got from my recent dental operation. I opened the bottle and took the rest of the rest of the pills in there; wasn't much, but it was surely lethal. I didn't even notice their usual chalky and over-all unpleasant taste as I washed them down with a glass of water. A few minutes later, I felt everything slowing down; the silence between each tick of the clock was getting longer, my heart was slowing down, even the usual outside noises seemed to be getting distorted. _See you soon, Alisa. _I thought as I felt myself start slipping in and out of consciousness.


	6. Chapter 6

I heard someone knocking on the door but I was in no condition to move. A few seconds later I heard the same knocking; whoever it is sure is persistent. _They are going to feel pretty stupid when they find out they were trying to get into-_ my thoughts were interrupted a loud crash; followed by rapid footsteps a few seconds later.

"Semyon! Ay, Дурак щортов!" I heard a muffled voice say in despair.

"I see... only Sovionok...before me..." my mouth moved without my effort; saying words that weren't mine. I thought I heard a siren in the distance; I did not have the chance to confirm because I blacked out shortly afterward.

I woke up to a rhythmic beeping; well, "woke up" is a relative term. I could feel that there was a bed under me and I could hear what I assumed was a heart monitor somewhere within earshot, but that was about the limit. _Is someone trying to save me? They are fools; I am quite sure I took more than the lethal dosage. _I thought dismissively. _Unless they can give me a second chance with Alisa, I have no use for their gift of life. _

"...couple minutes... discharge papers..." I heard a business-sounding voice fading in and out of existence. Suddenly I felt like I was going to fall off the bed so I tried my best to roll the other direction; I felt myself lose contact with the bed momentarily and then got rammed with what felt like a wall. I opened my eyes and saw my dusty ceiling; wallpaper reaching out from the walls coming within centimeters of touching the ceiling but not quite making contact. Kind of reminded me of myself; I was so close to finally being happy I could almost touch it, but lost everything at the last moment. I was laying on the floor of my apartment; I somehow must have lost balance and rolled off of my bed. I sat down in my computer chair and instantly got the feeling I shouldn't be in it. _That's concerning. If I'm not supposed to be in my chair, where I spent most of my day, where am I supposed to be?_ I thought as I reached for the mouse to wake up the computer and my eyes fell on the half-empty bottle of pills next to it. _Has it really been that long since I had that dental work done? The directions were very specific about how to take it._ For some reason this made me think of Alisa. _I'm sure the activated carbon had specific instructions for how to take it too, but Alisa had other plans._ I remembered how she had conned me into helping her with her attack on Genda. If I had known what she was planning, I probably wouldn't have helped; knowing her though, she would have just pushed me out of the way and got them herself if I said no. I got up to go to the kitchen for a drink; my eyes snapped to my guitar as I passed by it. _I wish I could see her again._ I sighed as I poured myself a glass of water from the tap. _That's what I'm going to do; I will pick up my guitar and actually learn to play it, beyond the few chords I know. That way if I ever do get to come back, I will have something to show her and maybe convince her to leave the camp with me._ Like flipping a light switch, I was overtaken with optimism and inspiration; in a few seconds I was in my computer chair with my guitar, refreshing the basics. I soon found myself spending as much time on my guitar as I used to on all of those image boards. I finally felt like I was getting somewhere; my chords were starting to sound cleaner, my hands felt like I had more control over them than the last time I tried to play. _I stumbled over the notes, but Alisa was more patient than I expected her to be. She may not have been very encouraging, but moments like my evening exchange with her on my way back from the bathhouse said that some part of her does care and wants me to keep practicing._ Alisa was already constantly present on my mind, even if not at the front of it all the time; guitar practice was a different story, however. Nothing outside of my guitar and thoughts of Alisa existed when I held it in my hands. I had started staying up late just so I could learn as much as I could before I went back. It started as only 10 to 20 minutes past my usual "bed time". As the days went on, however, my sessions grew longer and longer. In a couple weeks I found myself falling asleep with the guitar in my hands; the mind had a thirst for knowledge but the body did not have the resources to satisfy that thirst. It was one of those nights and I started to fall dozing off. _Well, I guess that's it for me tonight. I should go to bed. Tomorrow is another day. _I thought as I climbed into my bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

I was woken up by a short, sour note from my guitar followed by the sound of a wire whip hitting a wood surface.I got up to look at my guitar and discovered one of the strings had snapped and was hanging loosely from the top of the guitar neck. _I guess I did get carried away a bit with work and practice that I forgot about maintenance. _I thought as I started to get up; I was flash-frozen in place as soon as I finished that thought. "_I know she would not just leave her guitar like this and not fix it." _my own voice echoed through my head. Foreign memories flooded back to me like the "godless horde" you see in Cold War propaganda. A murky image of Alisa's guitar with a missing string, the Cybernetics club building covered in snow, the sound of Lena sobbing. What did it all mean? Why did the image of my broken guitar completely disable me like that? _I can't allow myself to get distracted by thoughts that may not even be my own. I must focus on my goal._ I forced the gallery of torment out of my mind. I sat down at my computer to look up where I could buy another guitar string, or fix the current one, when my eyes fell on the half-empty pill bottle; my body froze again. The messenger chirp floated through my head, but in a very ominous tone. I looked at the clock in the system tray; it was 04:03. _It's crack-head o'clock, of course I'm not thinking straight. _I crawled back into bed and fell asleep with almost the same ease as last time.

I was jolted out of bed by loud, deliberate electric guitar chords accompanied by a drum beat that was equally as deliberate. The vocalist sang about being sentenced to death for crimes someone else committed using his body. I searched the internet for what this song could be because I've never heard it before. After close to half an hour of searching, I finally found what I was looking for. "Ride the Lightning" by Metallica. I looked through my iPod but could not find it on there. _I swear it was coming from my iPod. _I thought as I just sat at my computer, staring at my screen. This song was a bit too specific to just randomly pop up. I found a guitar shop nearby and went to get a new string so I could continue practicing. Turned out I didn't even have to buy a new string, just had to refasten it at the base of the bridge. The shopkeeper did it so easily I began to wonder how it didn't snap earlier if it was so easy to put back in. _Maybe it's all connected somehow?_ I amused myself with a fleeting conspiracy theory. The rest of the day passed without any more strangely-timed hints at the unknown. It was getting to be that time of night again when I start to fall asleep with the guitar in my lap. I leaned the guitar against my bookcase and climbed into bed. _I've really come a long way from when I first started playing the guitar. I wonder what Alisa's reaction will be when she sees me actually hitting all of the notes._ I thought with a smile as I fell asleep.

The morning was nothing really special; I barely even remember any of it before the point of me picking up my guitar. My phone buzzed to tell me it was on its last sliver of energy. I reached under my bed to get the charger and went to plug it into the wall; when the plug made contact with the outlet, I was shocked with the force of a cattle-prod. I stumbled backwards and fell against my desk; the pill bottle somehow managed to fall over and roll in such a way that it landed in my lap. An invisible spear impaled my chest when I laid eyes on the pill bottle. An image of Alisa standing next to a very oddly-shaped shadow faded into my mind and forced out all other thoughts. There was a shadowy figure standing next to a large switch.

"None shall know of my shame." The figure said in a hollow but very familiar voice. He pulled the switch and the oddly-shaped shadow came to life; it glowed with the wrath of Zeus. I wanted to warn Alisa; I wanted to scream, but all I could do is watch. When the tower filled all the way up with lightning, there was a blinding flash; followed by total absence of thought. The weight of the pill bottle seemed to increase tenfold, so I went to move it; upon touching it, I got another imposing image. I laid back in my chair with my eyes closed; a bottle of pills on the table is laying on its side, with 3 pills in a guard formation around the top of the bottle. The final puzzle piece had fallen into place; all of the random events made sense now. Alisa died because of my actions, and then I woke up in my apartment and decided that there was no life without Alisa. _So that is where the pills went. This explains everything. But it is all wrong. It should have never happened this way. I was so obsessed with keeping my good image with Lena that I forgot about Alisa. I have to go back._ I sat leaned against my desk and stared into space ahead of me; I lost track of time and could have been staring into space forever if I hadn't suddenly heard a knock at the door. I went to look who it was but I didn't see anyone or anything except an empty hallway. I got back to my room and saw that someone was sitting in my chair, facing away from me. I slowly started to turn around, trying to be as quiet as possible, but my mystery guest sensed my presence.

"Leaving so soon?" a voice that slightly sounded like me asked.

"I don't want to talk to you. Whoever you are. Just leave." I grumbled and sat on my bed.

"Oh, you're talking nonsense. I can't leave here anymore than one can leave Hotel California." the voice replied.

"You've... made your bed. Why don't you want to lie in it?" the voice asked with a sadistic grin.

"Shut up. You weren't there. You don't know what I've been through since then." I grumbled again.

"On the contrary, I know everything. I know you are trying to get back and impress her with your guitar skills." I could only see that damn sadistic grin of his through the shadows; isn't my desk light shining right at him?

"What are you going to do when you lose her again?" he asked.

"I'm not going to. I'm wiser now than I was then." I replied; he must have sensed my wavering confidence.

"We will see about that." He said mischievously planted his feet on my knees; he pushed off and started speeding towards the desk. Instead of colliding with the desk, the back wall and the desk shot out and stretched to infinity, with the chair following close behind them. Maniacal laughter rang all the way down the warped hallway until I couldn't see him anymore; it was like a Halloween edition of the Doppler Effect.

I woke up with a shout, and covered in cold sweat. My eyes instantly snapped to my computer chair; no one here but us curtains and monitor brand logos. I noticed the charger on the floor; I never did get to plug it in. _I think I will pass; one acid trip is more than enough for me._ I decided not to mess with it; it hasn't went off in I don't even remember how long anyway. As if some cosmic force heard me talking trash about my lack of communication, my phone vibrated to tell me about a new message. _It still has battery power left?_ I wondered in surprise as I picked it up and flipped open the screen. It was a picture message. An open pint of Neapolitan ice cream, and someone had stuck two fingers in the strawberry, and a third in the chocolate. An image of the buzzing tower of death flashed across my mind, causing my hand to jerk violently and toss my phone; it clattered to the floor and slid until it ran into my guitar. OK_, I've got to calm down. I know I need to go back, but how? I don't even really know how I got there in the first place._ I decided to take a walk; hopefully the cold air will at least distract me for a few minutes. I got dressed and went outside; it was a little windier today than usual, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. I walked around aimlessly while lost in thought; the cold air went almost unnoticed even as I walked against the wind. I looked up from staring at the floor and saw I was at the bus stop. _My subconscious must have brought me here._ I sat down on the bench and decided to wait for the bus; I wasn't expecting anything to happen because this felt a little too easy. It wasn't long until the bus showed up and the doors opened. I took a few onto the bus when I heard an offended voice.

"You've got a lot of nerve coming here after what happened the last time! You are not welcome here!" The voice came from the driver's seat; followed by a hand shoving me off of the bus. I tumbled backwards and fell on the ground as the bus pulled away. _Did that really just happen? _I remained on the ground in shock and stared at the sky. After I started to feel snow soak through my coat, I got up and started to walk home. When I finally got back to my room again, I tossed my coat on the bed and picked up my guitar. I spent the rest of my day trying to play along with the different bands on my iPod.


	7. Chapter 7

I woke up from a jolt forcing my hand downward, plucking a few notes along the way. I was on a bus that was slowing down; the bus was approaching a familiar gate. _I fell asleep? How did I not notice? _I wondered. _Am I really here again? And why do I have a guitar with me? _I didn't have anything with me last time I came here. When the bus finally stopped, I wasted no time getting inside the gates. I saw Slavya walking towards the gates; presumably to greet me. I snuck off to explore the camp; I'm sure I will see her later sometime. I was walking along the path where I first met Alisa; I had made it all the way down the path, however, and no one hit my back like last time. I decided to go look for her. I didn't spend too much time looking before I heard some angry chords playing with slightly less so drums. When I got closer to the source, the music scaled down to a quiet guitar solo of sorts. A few seconds later I picked up a faint voice.

"В пустате, нашых душ, становитца покоиней." It was unmistakably Alisa's voice. I got closer and closer until I was in the front row seats and sat down to listen to her play. Her voice carried anger and sadness, yet was so beautiful and heartwarming. I was just glad to hear her voice again. She finished the song and there was silence for a couple minutes.

"That was amazing." I finally managed to speak; I had suddenly forgot how to talk and felt like I was learning again just now.

"You have five seconds to tell me why you're here and get the fuck out." She growled.

"I... I missed your voice." I stuttered out.

"After you made a fool of me in front of the entire camp?" Alisa said with a glare that could kill Zeus himself. I looked down at the floor.

"I... I'm sorry. I've felt terrible about how everything turned out." I mumbled; I couldn't look her in the face; I didn't have to look at her to know she was giving me the death stare to end all death stares.

"It has been more than 5 seconds. If I open my eyes and you are still here, you are dead." Alisa threatened. I couldn't move; nor did I want to. I finally got here, so I will make this right. _Besides, she can't kill me right here and now; not without some effort. _I thought; I didn't see any weapons so I felt slightly safer than when I first walked up. I saw her eyes open and it felt like I was thrown into the surface of the sun.

"Enjoy your final moments." Alisa said in a soft growl. I heard something of considerable size sail through the air; suddenly I felt almost weightless. I was slowly falling backwards as Alisa's guitar came up and glistened in the sunlight; it was covered in blood and looked like one of the sides was actually an axe blade. I felt my back hit the ground, followed by that feeling when you first snap out of a really intense daydream. I was on the floor of my apartment, staring at the ceiling.

"Did you really think it was going to be that easy?" A voice chuckled; no doubt sitting in my chair again.

"She is a ticking bomb, and you're the only one that can defuse her. Sure, can run in senselessly and blindly grab at some random wires, but that's not going to get you anywhere; with the exception of a possible early grave." The voice said in a concerned tone; almost like he actually cared about what was going to happen in the future.

What do you care?" I snapped.

"You wanted a second chance. You spent all of your time, effort and money on your guitar. You even made a couple of health sacrifices just to get more practice in. You got your second chance. You could have gotten it earlier but you were busy pretending you didn't remember anything." The voice said with annoyance. I heard a sigh.

"Perhaps you're not ready yet. You don't truly understand the value of the opportunity given to you." The voice said in a disappointed voice.

"No! I'm not leaving! I still have to make things right." I objected; I was not going to just leave after everything I've done to get here.

"You're right. You're not leaving. You are staying in this apartment." The voice said sarcastically with a small laugh at the end. I looked at my chair, but found it empty; he must have left already. I got up and went to look at my guitar; from the angle I was looking at it, it looked like one of the strings was loose. As soon as I touched it however, I felt my shoulder being shaken.

"Did you not hear the bell? It's Lunch time!" a voice chirped; followed by a couple of rapid footsteps and a door opening. As the door closed, I slowly got up. My stomach felt like it was going to eat me alive. I pulled up my shirt and saw an ugly scar stretching all the way across my stomach. An image of Alisa holding a guitar menacingly flashed across my mind; I shuddered and headed out the door.

"Good morning." I heard a barely audible voice behind me; I turned around and saw Lena. Our eyes met and she blushed; quickly shifting her eyes to the floor. More images from the gallery of torment. Lena laying on top of a shadowy figure, while a red bar above her head is slowly draining. When the red bar disappeared, an image of me in my computer chair with the overturned pill bottle faded in as the word "Пиздец" faded in over that picture. _Don't tell me she died because of me as well. _I did not want to believe it, but deep down in an inaccessible part of my mind, I knew it was true.

"Good morning." I said and continued walking to the cantina. I must have gotten here early because it was not bursting at the seams with pioneers as it usually is. I got my food and went to look for a table; Alisa stood out like an angel among mortals. It was like someone had blurred the world around her and left only her in focus.

"You... you mind if I sit here?" I asked when I walked up to her table.

"If you're not embarrassed of being seen with me." she said dismissively. Her note flashed across my mind. I shook my head and sat down. What do I say to her? How do you talk to someone who has died directly because of you?

"How are you?" my mouth moved on its own; this was possibly the worst question I could ask out of the million other options. I didn't notice how she picked up her cup and threw it at me with all of her strength; I was brought out of my thoughts by the cup hitting my forehead; it hit with such force that I felt like I just experienced and earthquake.

"Don't talk to me." She said calmly, though I could sense rage in her voice. She got up and left the cantina; there was no random quiet spell, no one asking questions, no inquiry by anyone as to what happened. _They couldn't have not noticed. Then again, if they didn't, I wouldn't be too surprised. _I finished my food and headed back to my cabin.

"Oh hi, I was just looking for you. You are actually going to be bunking with Alisa. The camp never had a chance to rest with her and Ulyana being in the same cabin, so you are going to give us our much-needed break." the camp leader announced when I walked in; I didn't know whether to be overjoyed or feel like I've been given the death penalty. On one hand, I was glad that I was put with Alisa because maybe I'll get to finally talk to her and set things right. On the other hand, after my encounter with her in the cantina, I doubt she wants anything to do with me; I'm a dead man if I walk into that cabin. I walked around aimlessly for God knows how long; when I finally looked up, I was in front of the Cybernetics club.

"Hey, you must be new here! You have to see my latest project." Electronik's voice popped up out of nowhere, and soon I was being lead into the building.

"Behold! The new face of camp security!" Electronic cast off a dusty sheet covering a large, tower-shaped object. My heart skipped a beat as time itself seemed to freeze; it was the tower from my dream. Although it just looked like cold steel, I knew what coursed through those deceptively calm steel veins.

"We just need a wire that will connect it to the power supply, and then we can begin testing it." He said proudly. _Testing, hell. It worked more than I ever wanted it to. It killed the two people I valued the most in the blink of an eye._ I thought as memories of that certain day came back to me. _No... I killed them; I can't deny it and keep lying to myself anymore. The tower was just an instrument that was used to make a point. _

"Hey, I've got some errands I have to complete before dinner, so I will see you around." I lied; I couldn't stand next to this grotesque recreation of history any longer. I spent the rest of the day just walking around the camp; which entailed hiding in the bushes or behind a building every time I heard a voice nearby. It was finally dinner, so I welcomed the cantina trumpet. When I got to the cantina, I saw that were was actually a small line to get in. after a few minutes of waiting in line, I was finally inside. After getting my food, I discovered that there was only one free chair; next to Alisa.

"This is the only chair left. I'm sorry. I know I'm the last person you want to sit with right now." I said as I sat down.

"Did you not get enough the first time?" Alisa asked after a long silence.

"It was better than what I deserve after everything I've put you through." I said as I put my hand on her free hand; clearly I was not thinking at all and had no self-preservation instincts at the time. Alisa moved just enough to get her hand out from under mine.

"I just wanted to see you again and hear your voice." I mumbled.

"Well, you see me right now, and I'm talking. Are we done now?" Alisa grumbled; she understandably did not want to continue the conversation. We spent the rest of the time in silence. A couple minutes later, I was alone in the cantina. _Well, it's back to hiding from pioneers for me, I guess._ I sighed as I took back my dishes and left the building. I thought I had only been walking around for a few minutes, but the night that has descended on the camp grounds told me otherwise. _Going to Alisa's cabin is asking for trouble, but then again, so is wandering around outside in the dark after some of the horrors I've experienced in said dark. _I shuddered as evil memories floated across my mind. When I got to Alisa's cabin I knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" She answered in an annoyed tone; this completely discouraged me from answering. _Maybe I should spend the night elsewhere tonight and then come back tomorrow. _I just stared at the door in silence.

"Damn it, if you want to come in, open the door already." She said in a raised voice. I slowly opened the door; ready to duck or run at the first sign of danger.

"Oh, damn it. Don't tell me you're my new roommate." Alisa rolled her eyes and turned away from me.

"I..." I began to say, but realized I had nothing to continue with. I saw my guitar leaned against the empty bed; exactly the same way that Alisa's guitar was leaned against hers. I sat down on the empty bed and picked up the guitar to make sure it was mine. Everything seemed to match up with my guitar. I was about to put it down when I noticed a small inscription near the amp jack. "Стал ли ты щесливей? - Алиса" this inscription cut through me like a knife.

"You shouldn't dick with stuff that's not yours. Leave it alone and report it to the camp leader tomorrow morning." Alisa grumbled without turning towards me.

"I've actually been practicing nonstop since I left. I liked listening to you play so much that I wanted to learn how to play myself. This is really the only thing that has kept me sane during the last two years." I blurted out; at best, she would not understand what I was talking about and give me some random dismissive comment. At worst, she will gut me with her weaponized guitar again.

"Go to bed. It's late." She grumbled; a deathly silence fell over the cabin. I turned off the lights and climbed into bed. _I have to be careful about what I say; the slightest wrong move and everything will be over._ I thought as I reflected on the events of the day. I was navigating a minefield but instead of regular mines, they were all nuclear warheads capable of leveling entire cities. Life was so simple on the internet; my words and actions held almost no bearing at all on my survival. If someone didn't like what I said, they would just go silent and I would forget about them a couple seconds later. Here, every word and action had to be carefully pre-calculated; even reactions to my words and actions had to be predicted before I made any decisions. It was a like a deadly game of chess with cosmic stakes. One wrong move, and the universe will have one less galaxy. _Sure I could just fuck off tomorrow and decide to concede the game, but could I really live with the memory of taking the life of an entire galaxy? _My mind had started to wander and soon I was asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

I woke up from a sudden difficulty breathing; I felt soft cloth covering my entire face. An involuntary groan escaped my throat.

"Damn it, I just can't do it." I heard Alisa's voice through sobs. She took the pillow off of my face and tossed it on her bed; she walked out of the cabin right afterward. The lunch bell sounded and I knew I had to get up; I didn't feel like getting lectured by the camp leader and moved somewhere else. When I got to the cantina, Alisa's absence overshadowed everything else. I wanted to go find her, but I knew that if I didn't eat in the next minute, I would collapse and decompose into the ground. I'm sure the Lord of the Earth would gladly accept me. But I had business here so I was not going to just throw this chance away. I quickly ate and was almost out the door in record time. My legs had carried me to the Cybernetics club. I walked in to find that the building was empty; the new face of camp security stood uncovered with a small door on the front of it hanging open; beckoning me to come closer. Upon closer inspection, this turned out to be a fuse-box. I had no idea what I was doing, so I just pulled the two biggest and most important-looking fuses. _Better close the door so that no one notices._ I thought as I quietly closed the door and walked away casually. I went to the stage where I first saw Alisa playing the guitar; she wasn't there, but I felt relieved that I at least checked. I decided to go back to the cabin; there was less of a chance of the camp leader sending me off on busy-work if I was inside a building. I knocked on the door to Alisa's cabin; even though I live here now, it's still her house too.

"Just leave. I don't feel like talking." Alisa's voice came through the door.

"How did you know it was me?" I asked; I couldn't see into the cabin so I was pretty sure she couldn't see out of it.

"Who else would it be?" Alisa asked in an annoyed tone.

"I... I just wanted to apologize. I couldn't stop thinking about you after I left. I just could not leave things the way they happened. I picked up my guitar again because I felt closer to you when I was learning to play again." I must look really suspicious standing here, talking to a door.

"What is so important about apologizing to me? Nothing happened." Alisa said dismissively.

"It may be nothing to you, but to me it was everything. I was too concerned about my image and ended up losing you. I had nothing left after I lost you." I felt my soul falling.

"So you decided to numb the pain...permanently." a different voice answered this time.

"Alisa is not here. But you are welcome to stay and chat." the voice said with a chuckle; it sounded like me, just like all the other times. I flung open the door and bolted inside only to find Alisa sleeping. I instantly froze; I have to leave as quietly as possible. I started to turn when I heard Alisa's voice again.

"Might as well stay, now that you're here." Alisa mumbled.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." I apologized; I didn't want to ask her about a conversation that may not have even taken place so I pretended I just came in and discovered she was sleeping.

"Why did you come here? Shouldn't you be at lunch?" She asked; it was still a while until lunch was over, and here I was in her cabin. _Logical question. Nothing to be afraid of._

"I finished eating early and noticed you weren't there, so I thought I would sure you were alright." I told mostly the truth; I didn't want to reveal my act of sabotage against camp security or the questionable conversation I had with whoever.

"Why did you come see me?" Alisa clarified her question; I had spoken too soon about the absence of sources of fear.

"I was worried about you. You haven't been quite yourself." I don't know how that last part got out, but it was out there now; just hope it does not set off any mines.

"Why are you worried about me?" Alisa asked me with a glare that made me hesitant to speak.

"Because I reacted horribly to the conversation at the campfire. I did everything in my power to earn a second chance to come back here." I finally answered.

"Yeah, maybe if you play the hero and pull me out of my dark pit I will get overexcited and rip my shirt off again." Alisa mumbled sarcastically.

"It's nothing like that. I just wanted to wanted to make things right again. I know I can't undo what has already happened, but maybe I could do something to make it up to you; to prove that I am serious about wanting you back." I had tripped over myself on the metaphysical minefield and had bent myself into all sorts of shapes to land on safe ground; I was ready to sacrifice anything just to have her back again. I heard a sigh.

"I guess you won't leave me alone until I say 'yes'. Fine then. Just let me get dressed." Alisa mumbled. I started to get up so I could give her some privacy but she stopped me.

"You don't have to go anywhere. It's not like you're going to see anything new. Or is that it? You didn't like what you saw so you denied its existence in your memory." Alisa jabbed.

"I never said that. Would you quit pulling me into your twisted theories? I was being stupid and lost sight of my goals. I don't know who gave me a second chance, but since they did I'm going to correct everything I did wrong the first time." I countered sharply. Alisa got up and walked to the door; she was dressed the whole time.

"You really thought I was undressed under that blanket?" Alisa asked with a small laugh at the end.

"You can't tell me now that's not why you came here. I can see the disappointment in your eyes." she added.

"Listen. I don't know what kind of twisted vision you have, but I see you as a lot more than just a body. You just keep shoving me into your own mental construct of me; you never see me as I really am." I snapped as I grabbed her wrist and pulled her towards me; I've been sent to defuse a bomb, but it seems I've decided to toss it out of the window. Alisa sad nothing, but had a sad face on that said way more than I needed to hear right now. _She _has_ seen the real me; the real me is the reason for her construct of me. _I realized as I saw her face. I let go of her hand and she walked out of the cabin. I didn't fully recognize where we were going, but when I saw the Cybernetics club building I suddenly felt a wave of cold sweat. We walked into the building and walked to "that part" of the room.

"Give me one good reason I shouldn't pull this lever." Alisa said calmly and looked at me expectantly. This was a trap; she agreed because that was the bait.

"It doesn't work. Electronik told me it wasn't finished yet so it's not going to do anything." I bluffed; she might throw the switch just to scare me.

"Why don't we find out?" Alisa asked with a devilish smile. She flipped the lever before I could do anything; I braced for impact. Grave silence reigned in the room. I opened my eyes and saw that the tower of supposed imminent death was made of entirely ordinary steel.

"Hey! Electronik told me this thing was ready for testing!" Alisa shouted; a sudden realization hit me. _I had taken out the fuses earlier today. Of course nothing happened. _I instantly calmed down; I need to play like I knew this all along so I will have an edge on the conversation.

"It _is._ If you have these two fuses." I showed her the fuses. Alisa blushed and looked away.

"I came here earlier and took these out, because I knew that you were going to try this again. But I won't make the same mistakes I did the first time." I explained how I came into possession of them. I don't know how, but Alisa managed to steal both of the fuses and install them into the fuse-box before I realized what happened.

"There is still nothing connecting the switch to the tower!" I blurted out; it was a last-ditch attempt at a bluff and I was already expecting it to fail.

"Damn it." Alisa growled after a brief silence. I suddenly noticed something glinting in the sunlight; a wire connecting the wall and the tower. I had to get her out of here fast; it's all over if she pulls that level again. We walked out of the Cybernetics club building and went to her cabin.

"I'm sorry your assassination attempt did not work out, but I care about you way too much to just let you end it like that." I said with a smile as I reached to stroke her cheek; I guess beating the tower of Zeus went to my head and I got arrogant with my actions.

"You said you've been practicing?" Alisa asked coldly as she slapped my hand away.

"Yeah, I wasn't lying! You will see." I said as I picked up my guitar. I played her a song I was practicing for a while.

"Dreams of identity..." I heard Alisa mumble in time with the song. Hearing this made me smile so hard I actually stopped playing for a moment.

"Why did you stop?" Alisa asked with a slight blush.

"And why are you smiling like that?" she added.

"You made me smile." I said and continued playing.

"I think I've gotten pretty far since the last time I tried to play." I said after I finished the song.

"Yeah, you have. But don't think you can just learn one song and magically everything is fine." Alisa said dismissively. She picked up her guitar and walked out of the cabin. I noticed that it was missing a string; a wave of cold sweat flash-froze across my skin. _The final performance. This is different from the first time, but the end result is what worries me. I will not let it happen again. _I thought in horror as a memory from "that day" flashed across my mind. I waited a few seconds and then quietly left the cabin. When we reached the bath house, I started to wonder if I needed to follow her. _But why did she take her guitar with her?_ I wondered and thus justified myself following her further. After the bath house she went to the stage. It wasn't until we reached the stage that I realized the importance of the bath house. Alisa's clothes were dripping wet and she took her electric guitar. The time for subtlety was over.

"Hey, are you really going through with this?" I walked up to Alisa and asked her directly.

"With what?" I could tell Alisa knew full well what I was talking about; she didn't hide her sarcasm very well.

"Your clothes are dripping wet and you took your electric guitar up here. To plug into an amp. Which is plugged into the power grid. Which means you are basically creating your own electric chair; sans chair." I replied plainly.

"Who are you to stop me?" Alisa narrowed her eyes at me.

"I'm not stopping you for me. I'm stopping you for you. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I do expect you to actually live your life and be happy; not cut it short because some idiot at summer camp was being stupid." I've never spoken so clearly in my life; my death must be just around the corner.

"That idiot at summer camp was the reason I was happy until he completely pushed me away at the last moment and destroyed my hope for the future." She was furiously calm again; this was by far the worst stage of her anger.

"Well, I'm back now. I can't undo-...damn it, I've already told you this. Aren't we out here because you agreed to let me make it up to you somehow?" I reminded her of how we got here in the first place.

"I only agreed so that you would leave me alone. I would let you have your soul-cleansing fun and sing me a song or whatever, and then go back to your own life with a clean conscience." Alisa confirmed my suspicion of her agreement being a trap.

"Is it really that bad that there is someone who cares about you enough to go through all this to find you again just to hear your voice?" I tried to calm her down. Her eyes widened and then narrowed with anger. I didn't notice how she reared back and threw the guitar she was carrying; I was brought back to reality by the impact of the guitar on my forearm. I had apparently put up my arm in self-defense to block the guitar, however, I felt no pain from the impact. _Either I am already dead and I've been wasting my time, or my veins are about to explode from the ridiculous volume of adrenaline thundering through them._ I thought as I caught falling guitar and leaned it against one of the nearby chairs. I slowly walked towards Alisa, but she made no attempt to move herself.

"I understand your anger, but I don't know what else I can do. When I woke up in my apartment and realized you were gone, I had lost all will to live so I tried to numb the pain to the point of never feeling it again. By nothing short of some sort of cosmic miracle, I was brought back to life and woke up in a hospital. Ever since then, I've been practicing my guitar and thinking of you. Here we are now, arguing about the very thing I came to fix." I was obviously going for broke; I was in a dead sprint across the minefield, no longer caring about the fate of the world or the mines than I may carelessly step on. I hugged her softly when I got close to her; she made no attempt to move away.

"What about your image?" Alisa asked in barely a whisper.

"My image got me into this mess in the first place and as a result ruined itself entirely." I replied. I felt her arms gently wrap around me.

"Not entirely. You came back and you persisted through all of my attempts to push you away." She said softly; I could feel a very slight tinge of warmth in her voice.

"I will not abandon you here this time. I promise." I assured her.

"We should probably go to the infirmary if you plan on continuing as a guitarist." Alisa reminded me of my stunt earlier. I let her go and looked at my arm; the pain came back in such an intense rush that I almost lost my balance.

"What do we tell the nurse?" I asked; this was not a simple black eye.

"Does it matter? She won't believe either of us regardless of what we say. She doesn't really listen to stories of why something happened, she just tries to fix the aftermath." Alisa reminded me of the nurse's supposed "do ask, don't tell" policy.

"You have an injury... pioneer?" The nurse asked in her usual mysterious tone when I walked in to the infirmary.

"You are lucky you got away with the injuries you have. Come back and see me...pioneer." She cleaned and wrapped my arm and went back to her paperwork. This was the most normal visit I've ever had to the infirmary; which made it even weirder than all of the others. We started to walk to the cabin when the dinner bell rang.

"People are going to ask about your arm." Alisa pointed out.

"I'd rather not tell them that you threw a guitar at me and I blocked it like I'm a royalty of the cosmos." I told her; telling the truth or lying would be equally as bad, lying especially at this point.

"You're on your own with that one. You're better at it than me, anyway." Alisa jabbed but with a smile; I didn't sense any sarcasm so I didn't say anything. Surprisingly, I was able to get my food and finish it without anyone asking about my arm.

"So now what?" Alisa asked me; her question was specific and infinitely broad at the same time.

"What do you mean?" replied in confusion.

"Now that you think you've won whatever game you're playing, what are you going to do?" she clarified acidly as she stood up. _A couple of minutes ago, she was tender and loving, and now she is back to her old self; maybe she has an image she is trying to protect too? _I began to wonder; one of the sides of her that I've seen is only an image, I just have to figure out which one it is.

"Are you still on about that?" I sighed.

"About what? We both know that this is another-" I interrupted answer by standing up and kissing her firmly on the lips; she showed no resistance. She looked into my eyes and the world seemed to melt away for just a few moments. When I came back to my senses, I saw that everyone was looking at us like they were watching Bigfoot on a monocycle juggling piglets. We took back our dishes and walked to our cabin like we didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

"I can't believe you did that in front of the whole cantina!" Alisa said as soon as we got inside the cabin; she was blushing profusely.

"Love makes you act in unexpected ways." I said with a smile. We just sat on our separate beds in silence without a sense of time; we both zoned out but I felt like we went to the same place. We were brought back to reality when the camp leader knocked on the door.

"Hey, it's 1:30 in the morning. Lights out was at 11:00. Go to bed." the camp leader informed us.

"Now that she mentions it, I could really use a nap." I yawned. I must have fallen asleep or zoned out again after the camp leader's announcement because when I looked at Alisa, she was already asleep.

I rolled over and didn't even notice how I fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

When I woke up, I saw that Alisa was still asleep. _I'm going to go take a shower; without any complications this time._ I thought as I grabbed a towel and headed to the bath house. I decided to start off with the shower since there was no one around. I got the water running, got my hair wet, turned the water off and started to work in the shampoo. I reached for the faucet to turn the water on and rinse out the soap but I felt soft flesh instead. Someone was standing in front of me; naked. _It would be like me to get so close and lose it all by groping a stranger. If I could die right now, instead of as part of the aftermath, I would die happy. Relatively._ I thought as I got an image of my entire time line here collapsing like a house of cards. I wiped the soap out of my eyes as best as I could and tried to open my eyes.

"Eep! Don't open your eyes!" I heard Alisa's voice squeak in an embarrassed tone. _Alisa? Embarrassed? Did the camp board the crazy train and I somehow missed the memo? _I thought as my mind went completely silent from shock.

"But... you're here... in my stall... naked... standing directly in front of me. Unless you thought I was blind, I don't know how you weren't prepared for me to see you." I finally broke the silence.

"I'm surprised you actually listened. You can open your eyes now." I could sense a smile in Alisa's voice. I opened my eyes but only saw the shower wall and the faucet I was reaching for initially.

"I'll meet you at the bus stop; I hope you're packed!" Alisa's voice came from behind me. I quickly rinsed my hair and ran across the compound to the cabin; with one fluid motion, I opened the door and seemingly flew into the cabin. I froze in place when I looked in front of me. Alisa was in the middle of getting dressed! I didn't bother moving because I knew she was already aware of my presence; just like the other times I've burst in without knocking.

"You look like you've seen a ghost." Alisa said with a smile.

"I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean-" I started to apologize but Alisa interrupted me.

"Oh you're funny. Get dressed. Do you want them to leave without you?" Her eyes told me that I had finally won the last battle of the seemingly endless war. I got dressed and grabbed my guitar.

"You know that you can't take anything with you on the bus, right?" Alisa reminded me.

"I had this with me on the bus when I got here." I told her; in fact, this guitar is what woke me up.

"Did I have a guitar with me when I got here?" I asked the camp leader.

"I would remember if you did. Dvachevskya is our only guitar player as far as I know." She replied. It didn't matter too much. I had Alisa with me now; everything else was replaceable. We got on the bus and were lucky to get a seat to ourselves.

"I hope to meet you when we leave here. I'm glad beyond words that I finally got to see you again." I said with a smile.

"I honestly didn't think you were going to come back after everything that's happened, but I'm glad you proved me wrong." she said warmly and hugged my arm.

"You are the one person that kept me sane in my apartment post-hospital visit, and then when I found myself here at the gates. I couldn't not come back." I said as I remembered all those nights of guitar practice while thinking of her.

"So you're saying you didn't have a choice?" Alisa asked in a playful tone; she was joking but I took it seriously.

"I did have a choice. And I would do it all over again if I had to." I answered in a serious tone.

"Oh, sounds like someone needs a nap." Alisa teased. As if her saying that was the final part of an incantation, I suddenly felt very sleepy.

Sometimes when you want something strongly enough, you begin dreaming about it. Dreams that are so vivid and correct, you could swear they are real. You hear every conversation in exquisite detail, and know what to say after everything the other person says because you've went through the conversation a thousand times in your head.

I woke up in my computer chair with my guitar across my lap. My guitar felt a little heavier than usual. I looked down and noticed there was an inscription near the amp jack. "Сегодня его голос привидёт меня домой". At the end of the inscription there were two letters that looked like my hand-writing. "CB". _If this is not my guitar, where _is _my guitar? Or am I just losing it and this really is mine? _I wondered as I leaned the guitar against my bookcase and started to get up from the chair. _Wait a minute, there is a string loose; the same one my guitar had loose a couple days ago. _I noticed as I leaned it against the bookcase. _I don't think days, or any measurement of time, is valid anymore but that's beside the point. Didn't I fix this even before going back to the camp?_ I got a drink from the kitchen and was about to head out to the guitar shop when I heard someone knock on the door. I Looked through the fish-eye lens and saw a girl standing there. I opened the door; I was curious who she confused my apartment for.

"Hey, I forgot my guitar at a friend's house. Do you mind if I use your phone?" She asked; her voice sounded so much like Alisa I would have bet my own life on it.

"Yeah, sure." I said and gestured her inside. I had completely forgot that she probably meant land line phone and lead her to my room to give her my cell phone. The girl picked up the guitar leaning against my bookcase and looked it over.

"Where did you get this?" She asked me.

"I've always had it. Since I was about 15." I answered; her question caught me a bit off-guard.

"I used to have a guitar just like this one. It even had the same loose string, before I bought a new one." She explained the reason for her question.

"What is your name? If you don't mind me asking." I asked; the worst thing that could happen is she would either decline to tell me or she would tell me some random name I'm not familiar with.

"Alisa." the one word that launched a thousand thoughts.

"You've been through a lot, so I will forgive your memory lapse this time." I heard the playful voice of the Alisa from the pioneer camp.

"I... It's you? It's really you?" I asked and stared at her with a stupid look on my face.

"Yeah. Who else? I think you need to stop taking those pills. They will rot the remains of what you call a brain." She suggested in a slightly less playful voice, but she was still smiling warmly.

"I love you. I'm relieved that this is all finally over and you are back in my life." I said and hugged her tightly.

"You were going down to the guitar shop to buy a new string or fix the old one, right? At least I hope that's why you got dressed to go outside." Alisa reminded me.

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me actually. I was so happy to see you again I kind forgot about everything else." I admitted with a slight blush.

"Oh don't you get mushy on me." Alisa teased. I put my shoes on and we walked out the door.

I had to always remember to keep other people in mind besides myself, lest I incur the wrath of Zeus.


End file.
